Pinch, punch the first of the month, yes it’s archaic but that doesn’t change the fact that I still got pinched and punched by my 5 year old. That wasn’t the only thing that happened to me this weekend, August 1st brought with it my local geek meet at Margam Country Park. The cosplayers were out in style, stars of film and TV turned up and even Bumblebee rolled out, yes it was this year’s Heroes and Legends Comic Con.
Heroes and Legends is the brainchild of Steve Speakman, he runs and owns a local memorabilia store called Freaks, Geeks and Autographs in Swansea. This year promised some great actors and actresses turning up along with the likes of K.I.T.T, Bumblebee and Barricade, we even had a Mystery Machine Scooby its way in. Due to unforeseen circumstances a few guests had to cancel, be it work commitments or like Josephine Gillan who was in hospital (we at Geek Pride wish her a speedy get well soon) but that was the only downside to the weekend, which any con goer knows it’s out of the organizer’s control.
Margam Park’s main hall was bursting with a variety of different stalls, offering classic toys and games, LEGO, and of course what would a con be without a POP! Vinyl seller. The most eye catching stall came from ‘The Darkside Gallery’(pictured above) which displayed the best of the horror genre characters hand painted on canvas and board, I’ve linked him at the bottom; check him out. Fans gathered at the stars tables to collect autographs and photos opportunities, this weekend’s highlight star for me was Robert Llewellyn, star of TV’s ‘Red Dwarf’ who plays servant / butler android “Kryten”, I managed to get a quick word in and ask how things were and how everything was going.
“Yes everyone’s been great! The fans are always amazing, they always have stories and love to talk about Red Dwarf.”
He even entertained my son with a brilliant “Kryten” ad-lib just for him. Other stars to grace us with their presence included the likes of Gareth David-Lloyd who plays “Ianto Jones” in TORCHWOOD, Bond girl Caroline Munro and the gorgeous Sarah Louise Madison who plays a “Weeping Angel” in the ‘Doctor WHO’ series, her most famous Episode being with David Tennant’s 10 in “Blink”. I had the most fun with Kiran Shah who has been in some legendary films such as The Dark Crystal, Star Wars and Narnia but I was there for his roles in The Lord of The Rings. We chatted about his roles as both a Goblin and Hobbit in Peter Jackson’s final hoorah in ‘the Hobbit’ trilogy and came back with some funny “behind the scenes” gossip.
“Peter [Jackson] called me one side while we were filming the Goblin King scene and said ‘when I say action, start humping Martin’s leg [Martin Freeman]’, he said to me make sure you go full hump and groan as well. So he yelled action and I just jumped on his leg and started to hump it to the shock of Martin who looked down and said ‘what the f*&$’ while Peter and the rest of the cast were hysterically laughing”
Something I will definitely be looking out for that scene in the appendix of The Hobbit Special Edition DVD.
The variety of cosplayers was, as always, a sight to see and the kids looked brilliant, they appeared in all shapes and sizes from Stormtroopers to an ice cream loving Dalek, there was someone for everyone to pose with.
All in all it was a great weekend, the weather was marvellous, there couldn’t been a better weekend to host this event. Everybody was made to feel extremely welcome, there were smiles from all staff, traders and the organizer Steve did his very best to greet everyone with a hearty “hello”.
I will be returning to Heroes and Legends next year and I truly can’t wait for it, two thumbs way up!
check out ‘The Darkside Gallery’ on their Facebook page
www.facebook.com/thedarksidegallery
